Posts by bluehalo

We do "year round", but with breaks at various places throughout the year. Vacations, travel, camps, hectic times in our life. This year was extra wacky with two moves in 12 months. We take more days off in the fall and...

For markers, we prefer Crayola washable. My boys like to have a variety, but the favorite that they both seem to prefer regularly are the Lyra colored pencils. They lead is sturdy, yet soft enough to blend nicely and make nice bright...

I sympathize with some of your dilemmas. To answer part of your question, yes, I do think you need to evaluate whether the "socialization need" is yours, or your children's. Sometimes when I'm really dying for adult...

My youngest is only two, but it's hard to say. I do know that I love having them both home all day, and that they get so much more opportunity to play together than they would if my oldest was in school all day. Of course, this also...

There are many other more experienced, more eloquent women on this board who might have more insight for you ... but what first crossed my find when I read your post is that it might be helpful for you to step back and reassess a couple...

I think it probably varies from child to child. Sure, there are probably various child development "experts" who will say one thing or the other, but ultimately, who knows. In my experience, my 6.5 year old son was very...

James and the Giant Peach? My DS enjoyed Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy at that age too.

I recently discovered this wonderful little book of poems that seems wonderfully appropriate for children: all the small poems and fourteen more, by Valerie Worth. We checked it out from the library, but will be purchasing a copy for...

We didn't use the CD at all, and we didn't use the flashcards the way they were intended But DS did like the flashcards, and we'd flip through them just for fun, and I think he made up a game with them. It is a very aesthetically...

Hi K! How are you? There was a thread a few months ago that I remembered having a great idea about making place value manipulatives out of beans glued to popsicle sticks. I had just bought a set of base ten blocks, and I was wishing...